San Jose Sharks Unveil Minor Changes to Uniforms

One step forward, one step back. That’s the best way I can describe the uniform changes announced today by the San Jose Sharks.

The biggest difference in the new uniforms is the removal of the black shoulder yoke from both the home and road jerseys while the shoulder patches remain the same from last season. This creates a much more clean look while also giving a nod back in the direction of the original Sharks uniforms from the 1990s. The “Pacific teal” now absolutely dominates the home jersey, which is really how it should be for the Sharks. Looks great.

Other changes include the removal of almost all orange from the uniforms — it’s now completely gone from the player name and numbers and has been reduced greatly on the sleeve stripes and the waist. Speaking of the waist…

While doing so really revs up the teal on the homes, the one change I’m really not a fan of is the removal of the waist stripes. This was something Reebok pushed when they re-designed the entire NHL back in 2006/07 and it started to look like most of those teams who went with the stripe-free look on the waist had reverted back… San Jose has done the opposite. It just doesn’t look right on a hockey uniform. The one plus is the contrasting pant colours breaks it up a bit (when worn on the player as a uniform) but a jersey with no waist stripes looks silly when you’re wearing it as a fan. That’s a $129 nightgown you got on there.

San Jose Sharks’ new road uniform “in action”

The Sharks are saying they removed the waist stripes to lighten the weight of the jersey. If this is the actual reason we can’t be too far off from screen printed logos, patches, stripes, and player name/numbers. Let’s just hope this never happens.

All stripes around the collar have been removed from the home uniform to complete that teal domination (a single teal stripe is around the collar of the white roads), and while we’re there — collar lacing is also new for the Sharks. Everybody’s doing it these days so they might as well too. I like it. I really like that the laces are teal on the roads, nice touch.

Love em. Would’ve preferred they did away with the front number and put the fin logo on the shoulder, but everything else is perfect. I’ll definitely be purchasing one of these sweaters.

http://www.carbonmade.com/mcdesignindustries tajmccall

Ahh yes, the Carolina Hurricanes school of design.

http://www.andrewphillipheil.com andrew

I’m a huge sharks fan… and I think I’m going to have to get used to these.

I love the striping on the old set. This is missing that for sure.

I know everyone (inclulding me and the players) love the black third, so I understand that they wanted to become more uniform with that – however, they had one of the best sweaters in the league… and these look good but are a minor downgrade without the striping.

I’m still a fan. I’ll still buy one. and I’ll still support the team.

Nick

@andrew

You’re gonna have to get used to them? They’re almost perfect…The old ones with the black shoulder yolk were way too busy. Same story with the double orange striping, it was all way too much. This is much simpler and will look amazing on the ice.

http://www.andrewphillipheil.com Andrew

@nick yeah, I am going to have to get used to them… While I agree the old sweaters were a bit busy, I’m going to miss the bottom striping.

They could have added it like the arm striping… I think then I’d be extremely happy. But regardless, they are still great looking. just have to get used to them.

Should have kept the wrist strips… and got rid of the front numbers.. all I can say is dumb way to do that.. wow…not sure how the jerseys will look well enough….

Brendan

These are hideous! why do all team take the stripes on the waist? there uniforms were fine the way they were and taking away one orange stripe and the outline makes it so much uglier

Gordon

no need for fancy, only spoiled people want that. these jerseys are just like their blacks, they’re great!

Dan

I like that they got rid of the shoulder yoke, but they should have kept the waiste stripes. It just makes it seem more complete. They could also get rid of the lone yellow stripe. I’m not a fan of numbers on the front of jerseys either. Other than that, the numbers, patches, collar, and lacing looks great!

David

Downgrade. Very boring jerseys now.

Matthew J.

If they had hemstripes I’d absolutely love them… San Jose, you blew it.

KDub

I would like to see the front upper shoulders numbers go away. At that size, they’re kinda useless.

Doug Brady

Should have kept the bottom striping. Glad they got rid of the shoulder yoke though.

Fiedman

Not a huge fan of this change. I don’t like the fact that there is no wait striping anymore I didn’t like it when Toronto or Edmonton did it and I also wish they would have gotten rid of the numbers on the front as well

Smith

By removing the yoke I think that it doesn’t make the chest number look as bad, having both the yoke and the chest numbers on their previous jerseys made it look too busy. Overall I would say its a cleaner look than they had before but I still don’t like the chest numbers.

redtiger7

So, they’re just going to wear practice jerseys now?

AdventureShorts

My thoughts exactly. These look like practice jerseys.

Gmac

They should have just turned orange to silver and just called it a day…

Zack

@Gmac YES. 1000x YES. They should scrap all of this orange stuff and go back to the old teal/silver/black pallete

t

Facepalm

Mr. F

The Buffalo Sabres should take not on how to do a teaser preview. First look to reveal in less then a week. While people still care about it.

Aaron Strauss

I dont know…I liked the previous version with the black shoulders. I do like the black alternate. Maybe leaving the waist stripe would have made it look better enough for me. Other teams like St Louis and Nashville who dont do waist stripe, have thin stripes down the sides so there is still something there.

JeffB

Definitely a cleaner look, but they dropped the wrong element when they kept the jersey numbers on the front and took off the waist stripes.

Aaron

Yeah, that’s really my only gripe about these. But definitely a lot cleaner without the shoulder yokes. Now just add the fin to the shoulders and these are perfect.

Dante

Chris, I still loathe the number/letter font they’ve adopted for the last several seasons. It’s gross, and doesn’t match the smoothness of the Sharks. I hate the front numbers as well. I am glad they got rid of the burnt orange around the numbers, but think the arm stripes need to look smoother also. I’ve no problem with the lack of waist stripes – it’s unique, and that is not something a lot of teams bother being anymore.

Mathieu

I like it, but they should have kept the waist striping. It would be better again if they completely turned off the orange.

Ghosty

There are some positives as well as some negatives to this jersey design change. I would have liked the full body ‘jumping’ shark to be the primary logo and put on the front of the jersey instead as shoulder patches. Also, get rid of the Shark in a triangle logo completely; the full body shark logo is so much better looking. And then put the fin logo on as shoulder patches instead. In addition remove orange from the jerseys entirely. I am okay with the orange on some of the logos like the fin logo. Just keep the jerseys simply black, white, and teal. Additionally, instead of being repetitive and using the primary logo on the helmets, make a new better script logo that says ‘Sharks’ or ‘San Jose’ and put that on the helmet. I’m not sure if the players just didn’t get new gloves yet, but also remove the orange from the gloves to make it simply black, teal, and white. And lastly, remove the front numbers on the jersey. Makes it too busy, especially if they were to add Stanley Cup Finals patch. And if their thought process was to eliminate extra weight, the front numbers would have been a good weight reduction as well.

Sorry for the long comment, I just wish that my favorite team was also the best looking team in the NHL. But unfortunately these jerseys just don’t do it enough for me.

Rob S

Huge Downgrade! I am very surprised they have gotten rid of the horizontal striping near the hem line or waist. Taking out the shoulder yoke was not necessary. Some have suggested it was too busy, but that was only the case because of that stupid number and assorted patches. Also I actually might be the only one that does not like the shark shoulder patch! The fin patch was cooler.Then they have to go with the trendy lace collars. I don’t mind a few teams having that collar, but it is becoming out of control! Glad, I don’t root for the Sharks!

alex

Should have kept the wrist strips… and got rid of the front numbers.

sparky chewbarky

Z-z-z-z-z-z-…

The 1 orange stripe in the striping is just dumb. Either put in the 2 stripes and make it symmetrical, or remove the orange altogether from the striping. I would have roughly gone with a teal/white/black version of the Blackhawks’ sweaters (complete with waist stripe}, and thrown in orange and silver in the shoulder patches and chest crest.

I love that they downplayed the orange, which never felt right, and the yoke never really worked for the Sharks look either…but keeping the numbers on the front and ditching the waist striping make this a downgrade to me.

Like the Senators, this is a team that nailed it with their first look and has just been stumbling between bad looks and mediocre looks ever since.

Rob S

Right on, Right On Big McLargehuge! Loved your comment about The Sharks and Senators nailing it with their first jerseys. Those are great examples. Both teams have failed miserably since then w/ their jersey designs.

ingmar66

Drop the front numbers, bring back the fins on the shoulders and re-instate a hemline striping as broad as the arm stripes and it is my favourite NHL jersey (I do not have a favourite team). As of now it still ranks 8/10, but getting rid of hemlines is a disturbing trend. As stated above, next thing will be cheap screen printing and the total practice jersey look. Getting rid of hemline striping clears space for advertising, or am I being paranoid?

el

aww here we go again. Planned obsolescence in the NHL uniform marketing dept. One step forward three steps back. The Sharks will sell these new unis to the faithful for a quick buck and then go back to the drawing board in 3 or 4 years. IMO these are simply awful. Teal is not a colour that works all on its own. These uniforms absolutely assault you with that garish 90′s teal crap. It’s like a big swatch of ugly fabric coming at you. This set needs a waist stripe badly for contrast and those stupid front numbers gone. Congratulations San Jose: this is the worst uniform set in your franchise history.

MM

Major downgrade, looks like an amateur hockey team sweater.

http://officalmovienight.blogspot.com/ Robert Ozias

The number on the front is outdated and not needed.

Justin

The Sabres, Stars, Oilers, Predators, and Leafs all reverted back to waist stripes after they were taken away in the rbk edge redesign. The Sharks will do the same in about 3 years.

Steve D’Acchioli

Nice look. I like the clean look with the removal of the shoulder “yoke”. And the all teal home uniform looks great.

Bill

Upgrade: making the shoulders match the body of the jerseys, removing orange from numbers. Downgrades: keeping the front numbers, eliminating the waist stripes, home jersey collar not a contrasting color. Sharks gonna look even more ridiculous when my Kings mop the ice with them.

BrianC

Please tell me those are practice jerseys. I thought the no waist stripe look ran its course. If they want to look good, they should go back to their original jerseys. Now THOSE were clean and classic!

agege

I’m a Sharks fan but I think the best we can do is sigh and beef while our disappointments continue for several years before they make another change. They look ok, I guess, but I wish they’d get rid of the redundant primary logos on the shoulders and revive the classic shark fin.

Luke Dzikiy

Minor but effective. Good job San Jose better than the Hurricanes.

Chaz Nicola

As long as they still have black alternates I’m good

Gordon

Love em, just like their blacks

Jed

They should have just kept the striping on there and make this a nice clean look and removing the black shoulder yokes did help, but it still looks incomplete to me. The Sharks always did have a nice jersey to begin with, sans o removing the main stripes. The reasoning is ridiculous.

Aaron

There are at least a few teams who don’t put the striping at the bottom of their jerseys. And yes look like practice jerseys…

Phoenix (soon to be Arizona) Florida Colorado

Maybe in a couple years time they’ll put something at the bottom. Hey, maybe the Arizona Coyotes next year will wise up

BenC

Minor change? That seems like they took off a lot of stuff.

http://www.sportslogos.net Chris Creamer

Basically shoulder yoke and waist stripes… See the change Dallas made? That’s a big change. This is nothing.

LinkGaetz

To be fair, this is a medium-level tweak. Not a complete overhaul like the Stars, but definitely no “minor tweak”. They just tossed out two major components of the regular jersey and almost completely offed a color.

Randolph

These look like some dang practice jerseys. I don’t really care for waist stripes all that much, but the Sharks had it right. The waist stripes they had completed their jerseys and actually added a fair bit of character to the uniform. I just think, why try and fix something that didn’t need fixing? Oh well, I guess if the majority is happy with the change, then all is well.

http://tjthesportsgeek.wordpress.com T.J. The Sports Geek

I liked the uniforms they had before. When the yoke and the stripes on the waist are gone,it feels like something is missing. Downgrade!

Bill

I’m glad I am NOT a Sharks fan. With the front numbers and without waist stripes, those look like practice jerseys. Reebok needs to get with the program. SJ’s new jerseys=downgrade

Doug

These look Ok, I wish they would delete of the triangle behind the shark in their logo. It looks clunky to me.

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SFforlife

I like the cleaned-up collar, don’t really care about the yoke, but the front numbers need to go. The shoulder logo needs to be changed too, include the fin logo perhaps, the full shark is okay but redundant. Overall, not bad, wish the hemline was back, and orange was replaced with silver accents like in the early 90′s, but not bad, I guess. They cleaned it up. The logos, and particularly the scripts need to changed.

Aaron

The main logo looks really good. They look way cleaner now without the yoke, but the numbers don’t really need to be in the front. I’ve noticed certain teams particularly in the Western Conference are skimping on the lines on the bottom of the jersey for some reason.

Aaron

Here’s another thought, if the Sharks ever made it to the Cup final against the Lightning or the Sabres, either matchup would likely be considered the cluttered jersey matchup.